


We're Going Home

by Purple_Space_Cats



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Cuddling & Snuggling, Exhausted Keith, F/M, Fainting, Fluff, Gen, I had to make this Klance, I made Voltron season 6 happy ish you're welcome, I named the space wolf Yorak and you can't fight me on this, Krolia is a good mom, Let Keith be happy, M/M, Minor angst maybe?? In the flashbacks??, Post-Season/Series 06, SPOILERS SPOILERS, SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS, Spoilers, Voltron Spoilers, it just happens, it wasn't even on purpose, keith faints, voltron season 6
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-18
Updated: 2018-06-18
Packaged: 2019-05-24 21:11:29
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,998
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14962242
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Purple_Space_Cats/pseuds/Purple_Space_Cats
Summary: SEASON 6 SPOILERS.Keith is exhausted. He's surprisingly good at hiding it.Until he isn't.His family takes care of him, though.





	We're Going Home

**Author's Note:**

> Well season 6 wrecked me hahaha have this

_"Keep him safe for me. I love you."_

_"I love you, too. Take care of yourself, Krolia."_

_"If all goes well, I'll be back soon."_

_A tender kiss between lovers. He watched his lover leave him, shooting off into the atmosphere._

_Keith began to cry, as if sensing something was wrong._

_"Shhh. Your mother is a hero, son, and we've got to let her save the galaxy."_

* * *

 

“We’re going home.”

Keith bore a bone-weary smile, turning back toward his team as Coran carefully hefted Shiro into his arms. Despite what the older Altean looked like at first glance, he was just as strong as Allura. And she could easily fling any of them, probably even Krolia, halfway across the Castle of Lions.

Keith’s heart panged with loss and he swallowed a lump in his throat, shaking his head to clear it. They were going to go to Earth and make another Castle. And his team would get to see their families again… yeah. He’d miss them, but he’d just spent two years without them (two years that were only two years for him, he constantly reminded himself of that) and could go another… what, few months? How long would it take to rebuild the Castle of Lions?

It would be too long. They had a war to fight. Especially with Lotor gone - hopefully dead, though considering their luck he wasn’t sure - the Galra empire would be in tatters, again.

(Keith hoped they could get a Blade of Marmora on the Galran throne this time. Kolivan would be a good emperor, wouldn’t he?)

“We should make a camp here. I don’t think any of us are in a good state to travel.” Krolia murmured, and nods went around the circle of paladins.

Keith was grateful for his mother. She could see how his shoulders slumped, how his eyes were slightly dulled, how emotionally and physically drained he was. Keith’s face stung terribly now that the adrenalin in his veins was gone, his heart hurt (he’d fought Shiro he’d hurt his brother he’d hurt him he could have _killed_ him) and he was exhausted. It had been a very, very long day.

“There should be supplies in the lions.” Keith offered, meeting his mother’s gaze and offering her a small smile. Her eyes softened and she nodded, beginning to move toward the Black Lion as each paladin moved to their own respective lions. Coran carefully carted Shiro over to Blue, where Allura had quickly returned with a bundle of blankets - the Blue Lion was closest and Allura knew where everything was. Duh.

Keith ran a hand through Yorak’s fur. The cosmic wolf remained at his side as Keith watched the horizon, his gaze blurring for a moment. Yorak let out a sharp bark. Keith wondered why, as the sharp sound sent a blaze of pain through his head. So he really was concussed, like he’d thought? Huh…

Keith’s world spun and his legs gave out, sending him tipping sideways. A pair of strong arms caught him before he hit the ground, a worried and familiar cry of his name ringing in his ears.

Despite that, Keith felt safe. He was with his team,  back with the other Paladins. Shiro was alive, his brother was alive… they were all alive.

“Kit, kit, kit, my baby, hold on…” Someone chanted. Keith’s head lolled and whatever else they had been trying to say was lost on him.

* * *

_Late one night, a small boy dared to ask a question he knew might get him in trouble. "Papa, why isn't Mama around?"_

_“Go to bed, Keith.” His father murmured back to him, running a hand through his six-year-old’s long bangs._

_“But Papa!” He protested, indigo eyes widening._

_“Bed. Now. It’s late.” His father gave no room to argue, turning a stern but loving blue gaze on his son._

_“Dad, you always do this! Any time I try to ask you about her!” Keith protested, balling his hands into tight fists on the sheets of his bed._

_“Go to sleep.” His father returned. That was the end of that._

* * *

Lance had been going to get blankets from the Red Lion when he’d heard Keith’s space wolf bark. And, hey, really cool space wolf. He didn’t understand where Keith had gotten the space wolf, and where he had suddenly become older and way more muscly. Keith had gotten taller, too! He’d shot up at least three inches… and that made him a full inch taller than Lance. He _hated_ that part.

But there were little changes to Keith that seemed pretty good, too.

He smiled easier now. He didn’t hesitate before speaking to people. Apparently, he had even told Shiro that he loved him, and he’d never heard Keith say anything like that before.

Back on track… the space wolf barked, and he’d been contented to ignore that, because dogs in his neighborhood barked all the time, and he was pretty much used to that by now.

What he wasn’t used to was Krolia - okay, Keith’s mom was really really cool and he had a lot to say about her and to her (did she have any good blackmail on Keith?) but it was really obvious they were related, especially with Keith’s new scar, which was also really cool - crying out, and that did make him turn around.

Krolia had abandoned getting to the Black Lion and was now flat-out sprinting back to Keith, who had one hand resting gently on the space wolf’s head. Why she was running he wasn’t sure of…

Until he was. Keith tilted sideways, then went down, and Krolia arrived seconds later to catch him before his head hit the ground.

“Keith!” He found himself yelling, now ditching his own duty to find camping supplies for them in favor of running to the Black Paladin and his mother. Their space wolf nudged at Keith’s chestplate with his nose.

Krolia was saying something, but Lance couldn’t hear. His heart beat too loudly in his ears and his footsteps pounded on the strange dirt of the alien planet they’d landed on.

If people hadn’t heard the space wolf’s bark, they’d heard Lance’s yell. He arrived at Krolia’s side as she swept the unconscious form of Keith into a bridal carry, her violet eyes worried.

She looked up from her son’s pale face and met Lance’s eyes, violet and blue meeting. Both flicked back down to Keith, who was breathing steadily despite his bruised and battered form.

“He’ll be alright.” Krolia murmured softly, clutching her son to her chest. Despite how much he’d grown out of nowhere, the Galran woman still managed to make Keith look tiny.

Remind Lance not to get into a fight with Krolia.

“He’s strong.” Lance agreed. “But… he’s probably been through a lot. He had to fight with Shiro… or the Shiro clone. Shiro’s the closest thing he had to family back on Earth.”

Krolia winced, holding her only child even closer.

As Lance had predicted, the rest of the team came scrambling out of their lions, arms laden with supplies. Allura had been tending to Shiro and so she came last, leaving Coran behind to keep an eye on him.

Hunk had an armful of soft blankets that had probably come from his room. Pidge had several tarps and it looked like the frame for a tent, which she’d dumped some distance behind her to come running to Keith.

Allura reached forward to set her hands upon Keith’s temples, the same way she had for Shiro’s when transferring him from the Black Lion back to his body. Or the clone’s body. Whatever.

The Altean blinked in surprise, shaking her head and drawing back. “Keith is exhausted and in pain, but it’s nothing serious. A day of rest should fix him up.”

Lance shot her a dubious look for that one but Krolia only nodded, lips pursed and brow furrowed heavily.

“I’ll get a tent set up. We can put Shiro and Keith in there.” Pidge offered.

“Do you even know how to set up a tent, Gremlin?” Lance asked, forcing a lightheartedness he didn’t feel into his tone.

It must have worked, because even Allura cracked a smile. Krolia was the only one who didn’t, even if Lance’s was forced. Pidge swatted his arm for that one.

* * *

 

_“Keith, come back here and give me that!” A harsh voice snapped after the small boy with long black hair who was pelting down the street, wearing black shorts, a black shirt, and an oversized black and white hoodie. He clutched a knife to his chest. “Children shouldn’t have weapons!”_

_“Make me!” The twelve-year-old screamed back, turning with a fire burning in indigo eyes. He wouldn’t give up his knife and he wouldn’t give up his freedom._

_“I am your mother and you will do what I say!” The tall blonde woman said, stomping her feet._

_Keith recoiled into himself, eyes narrowing instead. “You’re not my mother. You’ll never be my mother.”_

_Keith Kogane was kicked out of his first foster home two days after first being put there. This was foster home number twenty._

_He was placed with Akio, Himari and Takashi Shirogane the next afternoon._

* * *

 

Keith blinked his eyes open to find himself pleasantly warm and curled up in what seemed to be a pile of bodies, his arm tucked up to his chest - though it was pressed against someone’s side - and his head pillowed on their chest. It wasn’t that weird, considering he and Krolia often slept curled up into a ball with Yorak back on the space whales. It got too cold to keep their distance for too long and that was part of how Krolia had helped him get used to physical contact.

This was different, though. More people were here, for starters.

He could feel his mother’s familiar heartbeat underneath his cheek and turning his head revealed Krolia in her flight suit - it went under her Galran armor - being a pillow for her son. Yeah, he’d expected that.

What he hadn’t expected was the warmth at his back, too. There was a lanky arm thrown over him and holding him close, their legs and his tangling. He could feel someone’s face pressed gently into the dip between his shoulderblades. Keith lifted his head and could pick out the rest of the group around. Allura and Coran had curled up in a corner, not cuddling but laying close enough to offer mutual support. Shiro lay prone in one corner of what he realized to be a tent, curled underneath several blankets. Pidge and Hunk had curled up on Krolia’s other side, the gremlin sprawled practically on top of Hunk’s back and curled up underneath one blanket.

Krolia’s arms were folded behind her head, pillowing it so that it wasn’t resting on the ground. One blanket, a pastel purple in color, had been thrown over his mother and himself as well as whoever lay behind him… that was a human, not Yorak, so it had to be… Lance?

Unless Matt had gotten their transmission and had arrived to head back to Earth with them, and had decided to join the cuddle pile instead.

Keith, as subtly as he could, shifted to turn around in the hold of the blue paladin. And yeah, that was Lance.

All of the team’s paladin armor and Krolia’s battle armor were stacked by the front of the tent along with weapons and bayards, leaving the team in their flight suits and Coran in his normal clothing. So Keith was greeted with a sleeping Lance, his arms tight around Keith. 

The Black Paladin tried and failed to hide a tiny smile and the warming of his face.

He let himself lay down, facing Lance this time, and close his eyes.

He was yanked closer and felt his nose get buried in Lance’s collarbone or shoulder or something, but found himself falling asleep without issue despite the contact he had been so averse to before.


End file.
